The Ruins of Trenton

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama and VP pick Joe Biden can rest assured that they they will get the majority of the vote in Trenton in November.

That's what Mayor Douglas H. Palmer will be telling attendees of the Democratic convention in Denver, but in reality that's no thanks to Doug.

Mayor Palmer went with many other Democratic faithful in Mercer County last February when he threw his support behind Sen. Hillary Clinton, while many of his former mayoral opponents like Mercer County Freeholder Tony Mack and local businessman John Harmon went door-to-door urging voters to pull the lever for Sen. Obama.

But the results in Trenton speak for themselves: 7,221 votes for Sen. Obama to Sen. Clinton’s 2,994, despite support from Mayor Palmer and Mercer County's Watson Machine for Sen. Clinton.

Now we see that Palmer propaganda penned by publicist Kent Ashworth continually makes innuendo that Trenton's longtime mayor is deserving of some sort of high-ranking urban policy decision within the Obama administration, should the senator from the South Side of Chicago end up taking the presidency.

We say no to that, despite the fact that someone taking our ineffective executive off our hands does sound like a cause for celebration. If Mayor Palmer's tenure in Trenton is any indication of how he would direct urban policy, Sen. Obama would be better off picking someone else.

There's no need to repeat a series of nonexistent programs, failed development, and urban problems that continue to spiral out of control on the national stage, where more is at stake.

For all parties involved, it would be better if the mayor simply exited from the public policy business.